Final (The Black Heart)
Final is the faux main antagonist of the indie fighting videogame The Black Heart. He is a powerful creature that was born from the infinite world and from the other world. He is supposedly the one who killed the King of the Other World and stole his heart, but as the game progresses, we soon realize that Final wants to cover the heart from a bigger threat that arises. He was voiced by the game's creator Andrés Borghi, who also voiced Peketo and Hashi. Biography Origins Final is a primal, extradimensional being, born in The Chaos between both worlds, a dimension that supposedly exists to be the final destination of all dimensions at that will exist at the end of times. Thanks to the existence of the Shar-Makais, we can see that Final is not the only inhabitant (or at least was) of this world, as he had siblings. The Death King It is unknown what Final's purpose was prior to the events of the game, as he seemed to have knowledge and half omniscience of our world and various dimensions. What it is known is that Final set his eyes in The Other World, a dimension apart from ours that is a replica of our world. There, he felt that something completely bad was going to happen, right into the heart of the dimension, at the castle of the King of the Other World. The King, whose power trapped within exceeds to the ones of his, was murdered by his own son, The Prince of the Other World, and ripped his heart out of his chest, with the intentions of use its power to re conquer the lands his father shared out as well as conquer other dimensions through bloodshed and violence. Final, knowing how this put in danger the existence of every dimension, including his, stole the heart from Janos' bloodstained hands and escaped back to the Chaos, with the hopes that it would never reach his hands. Unfortunately for him, not only The Prince of the Other World was coming to reclaim his father's heart, but also a multitude of monsters, spirits and demons, attracted to the immense power the heart emanates. Final mission now is to protect it, at any cost, even if it means getting his hands bloody. Chapter 1: The Wooden Man On the first chapter of the game, we realize that Janos' actions for Black Heart's misuse has affected the nature of our world, tainting the vegetation of forests of the crimson-red color the Other World is seeped through. Final, who was framed by Janos for the murder of the King, has now became the spot of Malen, leader of the wooden people, who sent his best and only warrior out of exile, Hashi, in order to retrieve it and prevent a catastrophe on our world. Hashi, who always believed humans were the actual responsible for killing nature, is now forced to go to The Chaos in order to fight the wicked being. Final, who knew about Hashi's misanthropes tendencies, plotted something to lead the wooden warrior astray, and protect the Heart of Janos' forces who were coming for him. With a seed covered on the Heart's power, Final's plan was to grant Hashi his wish of purify his world, by killing all humans on it. The vegetation sprouting out of the seed would cover the world and all humans would die, by sacrificing humankind Final secured the heart from being retrieved by Hashi. Mankind was ultimately saved by Bako, Hashi's companion who killed him at the orders of Malen, following Plan B if Hashi did something that would put on risk our world, much at Final's disinterest, who achieved his goal. Chapter 2: Cry From the Soul The great power emanating from the Black Heart seem to be cause havoc on the spirit world, awakening an angry soul coming from his slumber to follow the powers emanating from the Chaos, Noroko. The old Japanese doll spirit, looking for the power to freed her from the curse she has been condemned, found his way to The Chaos to reach the power coming from the Heart, only to find Final instead. He is actually amazed how Noroko reached a level of power he never saw on an human soul, having the powers of death itself at her command, not belonging to any place and still standing in front of him. Being the second one that comes for the Heart, Final engages in combat with her. When he lost, Final had the chance to ask what a being with that level of power would want the heart for. Looking onto Noroko's soul, she shows him her tragic past, how she was brutally murdered in order to follow senseless rituals invented by the torturous human mind, how her hatred clouded her mind at the very last moments of her life, and still does in the afterlife. Final pities her, and rewards Noroko for her strength and winning him on-fight, using a bit of the Heart's power to freed Noroko's soul from her own resentment, Noroko finally has the chance to rest in peace. This is the only truly "heroic" action Final does in the whole game, with no hurting third parties and out of his own will. Chapter 3: The Red Dream The power of the Black Heart seems to have attracted the attention of a little child known as Peketo, who entered to The Other World through rituals on his father's book, who was an abuser cultist. Peketo, who has an obsession with the red color, gets amazed of the unique red coloration The Other World has, an gets obsessed with getting the power within it, but he gets teleported back to his home before he got the chance too. Wanting to see the red once again, Peketo beheads his father and kills other 6 people before being arrested by the police. On the mental hospital he was secluded, he was also beheaded by his own Psychiatrist, who was the brother of one of his victims. However, thanks to his pacts with demons and evil spirits, Peketo revives as one, and murders his Psychiatrist before returning to The Other World, looking for the heart. He followed the power to the Chaos, were Final was resting, and asks him to give the power to him. Final notes the similarities Peketo has with Noroko, both being powerful undead beings. But as she took her power from hate and sadness, Peketo took his from only plain evilness. He finds Peketo repulsive because of that, and tries to vanquish him from The Chaos, but as he can't be destroyed entirely and always comes back everytime he is supposedly killed, Final ends up losing the battle. Peketo asks for the Heart ask, only wanting it because he wants it, again showing his spoiled sadism. Knowing he couldn't get rid of him at his own, Final called a being who has the same condition as Peketo since the very moment he set foot on Chaos, apparently with interest on seeing him. Peketo asks with excitement who he is, but turns out it was the wraith of his own father, who was also revived thanks to the powers of the dead. Peketo is decided to finish his father once again for all the abuse he was submitted his whole childhood, and lashes out to him, both falling to a pit in the Chaos, fighting for eternity. Chapter 4: Chaos and Death Chapter four, Animus' arc, it's perhaps the one were Final was more reckless and heinous than on his other apperences, and shows how far he would go to protect the Heart from those who don't deserve it. Some point before Final stole the heart, he realized that using its powers for himself would ultimately kill him, so, he tried to make a vessel of flesh and blood that would contain the Heart's enormous power, an immortal being who would fight for him and destroy all of his enemies, including of course, Janos. In order to achieve this, Final set his eyes on our world, looking for a woman to conceive his offspring. On Csejthe castle, Transylvania, Final would finally encounter the woman that would later be his wife, an influential and powerful countess on the human world, sadistic, bloodthirsty, but the thing that interested him the most was the fact that she was always looking for immortality, the yearning feeling of never growing old. Thanks to those feelings trapped inside her, she turned perfect to be the perfect vessel for his son, so he visited her and forced her to conceive his child. When Animus was born, the countess couldn't believe the horrible monster she conceived, and tried to murder the baby in multiple ways, but it was useless, it always survived. It was the fruit of all her being turned flesh, all those feelings of immortality turned Animus himself on an immortal being, capable of resisting all kind of damage. Knowing she couldn't kill it, the countess locked the baby inside an iron maiden. and Final made sure it wouldn't open until the time comes. Janos, Prince of the Other World, realized somehow that the damned device contained in fact, Final's son, and sent his best soldiers to retrieve it on the normal world, so he could lock it on a prison cell to prevent Animus to escape. At the end, it was all useless. 400 years later, the maiden finally opened. The bloodthirsty Animus escaped his cell and slaughtered all of the guards who were after him, looking for answer of why he's still alive, as 400 years of complete darkness made him realize that life was meaningless, that everybody could enjoy death except for him, who was forced to exist. Such answers would later be answered by Final's voice inside his head, claiming to be his father, and ordering him to go to The Chaos, there, all of his questions would be finally answered. When Animus finally reached the Chaos, he asked his father to put an end to his life once and for all, but not even a powerful being from Chaos could end him, nobody could. Final answers to his demented son that his purpose was to continue his legacy, therefore, he couldn't die. A disappointed Animus finally reaches to the conclusion that if he couldn't die, everyone would die on his place, and his father would be the first of his killing spree, both engaging on a battle. A bruised Final tries to make his son realize that he conceived him to take the power of the heart, and end with the Prince of the Other World, who was coming for him, but Animus blamed him for his insanity and all the suffering he has been put through. Not listening to his words, Animus is prepared to dismember his father, but Final touches his sentimental side by mentioning him his mother. There, he tells Animus his origins, how he was born and what his purpose on life was. Taking advantage of a distracted Animus, Final grabs him to the neck and mind-controls him, making him a mindless slave that carries within him the humongous power of the Black Heart. Final, his father and now Lord and Master, succeeded on his goal, he would finally end with his arc-nemesis, the Prince of the Other World. But Animus only needed a second, one second of his recovered consciousness to use his new powers to reach his greatest desire: death, ending with Final's centennial plan. Chapter 5: The Daughter of the Prince Ananzi, the oldest and strongest of Janos' daughters convinces his father of sending her to slay the monster that, supposedly, killed his grandfather the King of the Other World. Since she was a little child, her hatred and disgust for Chaos' putrid creatures that crawl to the surface of the other dimensions was a trait that she gained herself without the help of her father, and is something that only grew stronger across the ages. Her father, however, didn't share the same thought. The Shar-Makai, horrible and sadistic creatures born from the Chaos between both worlds were an important part of his army, but Ananzi couldn't bare the solely idea of making this creatures slay the Chaos beast that killed his dear grandpa, and begged for his father to send her instead, which he accepts, with the condition that if she succeeded at killing Final, Janos would have to get rid of the Shar-Makais. Ananzi manages to get her way to the Chaos, where she finds the monster, still broken after the death of his failed experiment of a son. After a short argue they start fighting, were Ananzi results victorious. Still furious for the death of her grandfather, Ananzi insult the beast and makes him go through the same suffering her grandfather passed when he killed him. Final is impressed for the naivety of girl, which is so big it even surpassed her own beauty, and how Janos uses this trait to bind and manipulate her many times as he desires. Naturally she wouldn't listen, so Final tries to make her see the truth the hard way: using his telepathic powers, he shows Ananzi the things he saw the night the Heart was stolen, how the hand that pierced through the King's chest was not his, but from his dearest father, Janos. By doing this, Final tries to take Ananzi on his side and fight his biggest rival, but the only thing he did was sealing her fate. Teleporting from behind, Janos arrives to the scene and pierces through a devastated Ananzi's stomach with his own hands, almost instantly killing her, but not fast enough so she could see the betrayal of his own father. It was too late. Chapter 6: Lust for Power The Final chapter of the game shows the last battle of Final against her own brothers: the Shar-Makai, corrupted and controlled by Janos. An army of them was coming against him, but even with Final's weakened state, he manages to kill most of them before being finally overpowered. With nothing else to do, the two antagonist of the game have their last argument, with Janos trying to persuade Final of willingly giving the heart to him, as he apparently swallowed it to prevent its tremendous powers to kill him. If he did it, he would let him live, but of course, Final didn't need any telepathic powers to know that Janos is not an individual that should be trusted. With his body having finally abandoned him after many fights, Final uses his last chance to end with his enemy at last: he uses his mind powers to break the corrupting bonds the Shar-Makai had with Janos, exploiting the hive mind all the Chaos beings have. Free at last, the Shar-Makai crawl to their captor and start biting him with his enormous mouths full of sharped teeth and acidic saliva. Unfortunately, the power of the Prince of the Other World was bigger than Final could have ever thought. With a huge blast, Janos completely dismembers all of the resting Shar-Makai and sends their body parts flying to the air, and pierces through Final's stomach to finally have what he was looking for so long: The Black Heart. A dying Final says to Janos with his last breath that he couldn't control our world, as there were human forces that could stop him, but instead of scaring him, he takes it as good challenge. The game ends with a Janos' phrase that could resume causing the end of everything. Personality Final's a being that escapes human comprehension. Having almost omniscience, knowledge about the universe and life itself, Final sees humans as nothing but a dot on space, with little to no significance. Despite this, Final knows and takes advantage of his powers to protect the fate of dimensions of incoming threats, as he feels that he most restore the balance of it, even at the complete lost of few dimensions and lives to save many more. He despises and detests plain evilness, beings whose only existence is to bring death and suffering for no reason, but seems to respect power from those who are not fully aware that they're not doing evil things at all. Despite all of this, Final seems to not know, or be fully aware, to the things that separates right from wrong on human's standards, as he can commit heinous things such as genocide or rape with no significance for him whatsoever, again standing the fact that he sees humans as life itself as a disposable resource that he must protect or dispose to protect others. Powers And Abilities As the last and only boss of the game, and being a cosmic horror type of character, it is obvious that Final is the most powerful character of the game, both gameplay and story-wise. Despite not having the ability to block or jump, Final compensates it with an extremely high durability and invulnerability to throws and being pushed back (which in fighting games is known as Armor, meaning that his actions will not be interrupted if attacked), having the ability to warp from one zone to another and cheap, powerful attacks that will make the enemy crumble to the Chaos' powers. Some of his powers and abilities on both aspects include: *'Superhuman Strength': It is obvious, but Final's strength is extremely fearsome, able to lift adult beings with one hand as they were pieces of paper, and even heavier beings such as the Shar-Makais which are huge beasts of pure mass. He takes advantage of this to grab their foes and overpower them. *'Superhuman Endurance': Final's resistance is extremely terrifying. Fighting an horde of powerful demons, spirits and other chaotic beings that fill the roster of the game in a low span of time without losing half of his powers means he can resist inhuman amounts of damage. *'Omniscience': Final seems to be omniscient, but it is unknown at which degree. It seems that he can see both past and future and has awareness of what is happening on every dimension in existence, including our world. *'Biological Immortality': Final is biologically immortal and can't age. However, he can be killed through other means. *'Regeneration': Result of biological immortality. Final can regenerate and heal his wounds. If the damage he took was severe, he enters on a repose state which he can leave whenever he seems fit. *'Dimensional Travel': Final can teleport to other dimensions. *'Warp': Final can dematerialize himself and warp at short distances. * Energy Bending: Final controls energy and can use it to create chaotic blasts such as Lazer Fury and Lazer Apocalypse. Lazer Fury is a devastating laser that comes from his eyes and can use at both long range or as a grab. Lazer Apocalypse, as its name implies, is an even worse variation of it. Final shoots the ground with it, and after a few moments, an huge explosion of burning energy completely disintigrates any living matter that it touches. *'Chaos Manipulation': For being a creature born in Chaos itself, Final has the ability to destroy matter, space, time, or even reality. *'Psychokinesis': Final can enter on other beings minds and read their thoughts. This effect is not exclusive to human beings. *'Mind Control': Like his arch-nemesis Janos, Final can also corrupt any sentient being and bend his mind at his will, making them his slaves or just simply hypnotize them if he wishes. *'Haemokinesis': Final has some degree on the manipulation of blood, except from his own. He can burst out his enemie's blood violently coming out from their bodies, destroying them on the process. He can also use this same blood to create clones of the being the blood originally came from. On the game, this is present on his Piece of Mind move. *'Power Gifting': Final can give chaotic powers to other beings or objects. The source of the powers seems to come from his own, but in the game he gives the Black Heart's powers. Gallery Finalconcept.png|Final's original sketch concept. FinalWallpaper.jpg FinalIntro.png FinalSpecial.png|Final using Piece of Mind, his most popular move. FinalClones.png|Final creating clones using his foe's blood. FinalLaser.png|Final using the long-range version of Lazer Fury. FinalWife.png|Final and his wife. Trivia *Many people originally thought Final's speech was standard black speech, but Final just speaks Spanish. *Final is the only character of the game that can't block or jump. *Final is also the only character to not have an official Fatal move. However, Piece of Mind, Lazer Fury and Lazer Apocalypse will result on a fatality if the enemy is low health, making it to burst in bloody pieces or disintegrate, depending which move you used. *In Animus' story arc, we can see that his mother and Final's wife was in fact, Elizabeth Bathory de Ecsed , a.k.a the Blood Countess, a famous serial killer known in legends for slaughtering many virgins and bathing in their blood, which Final raped to conceive Animus. This was later confirmed by Andrés Borghi himself on an interview, saying that he included Bathory after seeing a documentary about her. 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